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Whoa There, Governor Walker

Beneath all the hoopla over Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s measure to bring the unions to their knees is one point that makes sense. Employees should have the right to decide whether or not they want to even join one. As one who had to join a union with more than its share of knuckleheads, I know how important this is.

When I was a member of the United Teachers Los Angeles, there were times I called, AJ Duffy, their grand, high exalted mystic ruler, but he never called back. Then I called another grand, high exalted mystic ruler, and she did the same. And here I was, a dues paying member. A coerced dues paying member, but a dues-paying member nonetheless, who indirectly paid their salaries and bought coffee and office furniture. They acted like civil service employees who could come to work in nothing but tennis socks and gym shoes and still have a job.

But it is the governor’s stand on collective bargaining that is really going to curtail his political career. If those rights are taken away, then employees would be at the mercy of the bosses, and it could turn the country into a giant sweatshop. The real budget problem isn’t pensions and healthcare. It’s rooted in the tax breaks that Walker’s business cronies get. In his mind, breaking the backs of the middle class while sidling up to the Koch brothers, who will then bankroll him into the White House, in his dreams, anyway, seems to be his real motive.

If Scott Walker and his cronies want to spend more time in office than President Harrison did during his month-long term, then they’d better remember that the good people of Wisconsin voted them in office, and the good people will vote them out regardless of whose money is behind them.